Among Sources of Film to the History of Socialist Poland

Skotarczak, Dorota

Feature films can constitute a historical source of knowledge on the times in which they were made. However, if films produced in socialist countries are to provide any knowledge to the historian, they have to be verified bearing in mind the specificity of the cinema in these countries. This is the case of films made in Poland during 1944–1989, in the times of the socialist regime. Those were the times in which films in Poland had to be made in accordance with the superimposed ideology. This is particularly true about films done in 1949–1955, that is the times of social realism. In order to capture the reality of the period in the films, one has to understand how it was changed. Thus, various documents explaining these mechanisms should be consulted. They are available mostly in Archiwum Filmoteki Narodowej (The National Film Archive), Archiwum Akt Nowych (The Archives of New Records in Warsaw) and Archiwum Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (Archive of the National Institute of Remembrance).